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If you are thinking of attending the meeting on Thursday 4 February, we'd like to ask you to consider the following questions as good starting points for what the forum will hopefully be able to address:

- How can we make these forums open and accessible to all?

- What would make you feel safer in your ward?

- How can we work together better to help people in Ferndale?

- What opportunities, related to our resilience and safety, are there in Ferndale that we should support and promote?

- What challenges do we need to talk about now to make sure it doesn’t become a problem in the future?

Thank you for your time and we look forward to meeting you on February 4.

Lambeth Council has launched new Lambeth Made Community meetings so that residents, organisations and councillors in every ward in the borough can build bonds, better share information, discuss how to address key issues and meet local needs.

The new ward-based forums started last month in Vassall ward and on the Angell Town estate, and have a particular focus on community safety issues including domestic violence, crime affecting young people and neighbourhood policing in support of the borough wide public health approach to tackling serious youth violence.

Community involvement in the cross-borough partnership project to tackle violence against young people, Lambeth Made Safer, is essential. The new Lambeth Made Community meetings will help meet that important aim, as well as present local people, organisations and councillors to discuss other hyperlocal concerns.

Cllr Jacqui Dyer, Lambeth Council’s cabinet member for Jobs, Skills and Community Safety leads the council’s work with the community, the police, our partners and the Mayor of London to combat crime in Lambeth. Her role includes addressing youth violence, community safety, crime reduction programmes, tackling violence against women and girls and tackling anti-social behaviour and hate crime.

Cllr Dyer said: “We really believe in the strength of our communities and the value of the local bonds that tie our neighbourhoods together. The goodwill, dedication and passion people in Lambeth have shown in very quickly stepping up and supporting their local communities during the coronavirus crisis has been incredible.

“We now need to build on that community spirit. We know that dealing with big social issues can be daunting, be that structural discrimination, economic disadvantage or tackling serious youth violence. But by creating these new Lambeth Made Community meetings we can start to break down the issues and look at the very real day to day impact on people’s lives.

“Not only are our residents willing to step up, but as a council we can bring community organisations, our public sector partners like the police and NHS and ward councillors to the table to share information, insight and resource to address issues at very local levels. We must to work together to find solutions.”

The first Lambeth Made Community meeting in Ferndale ward takes place on Thursday, August 13. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic the meeting will be held via Microsoft teams from 6pm to 8pm.

Cllr Dyer said: “We are holding these meetings at a time that we hope will allow a fair representation across our different communities. We also want as many community leaders, voluntary and community sector partners, parents and young people as possible to take part.”